The Record of a Regiment of the Line eBook

It was well on in the day before the 1st Battalion
got back to its camp at the Railway Cutting.

On Sunday, March 4th, a Thanksgiving Service was held
on the flat ground between the Convent Hill and the
Naval Brigade Hill, which was attended by Generals
Buller and White, and on its conclusion the battalion
moved into tents outside the works and in front of
Gloucester Post.

It was a strange experience moving out into the open,
away from the protection of the works. The nerves
of most had had a severe strain from want of food
and continual anxiety.

It was the anxiety which killed. There is nothing
more conducive to the deterioration of men’s
minds than false alarms on an empty stomach.

CHAPTER III

EVENTS FOLLOWING THE SIEGE OF LADYSMITH, AND THE ADVANCE
NORTH UNDER SIR REDVERS BULLER

1900

The first few days following the relief were employed
in the sorting and reading of four months’ mails
and the opening up of presents. Many complimentary
telegrams were received by the battalion from England.

Major Davies, Captain Bartlett, and Lieutenant Willis,
all of whom had been doing duty with the 2nd Battalion
during the relief operations, joined the battalion
on the 7th with some eighty-six men who had been sent
from Jullunder.

The two battalions were together for a few days only,
as the 2nd Battalion after a short rest proceeded
with Sir Redvers Buller’s force towards Modder
Spruit.

On March 10th the Ladysmith garrison was reorganized,
the battalion being placed in the 7th Brigade with
the Gordon Highlanders, the Manchester Regiment, and
the 2nd Battalion Rifle Brigade. This brigade
was commanded by Colonel W.G. Knox, C.B.

Colonel Park, unfortunately struck down with enteric
fever on the last day of the siege, was shortly afterwards
invalided to England. In his absence Major Davies
took over command of the battalion, and Major Curry
having been appointed Commandant of Ladysmith, Captain
Jacson took over the duties of Second-in-Command.
On March 14th the 7th Brigade marched to Arcadia,
seven miles out of Ladysmith on the Vanreenen’s
Pass road, camping on a kopje overlooking Dewdrop
Spruit. The men were then occupied in route marching
and generally getting fit.

[Illustration: Brigadier-General Walter Kitchener]

Brigadier-General Walter Kitchener arrived in camp
on the 26th March and took over the command of the
7th Brigade from Colonel Knox, and on April 2nd the
battalion, accompanied by General W. Kitchener, marched
to Brakfontein, seventeen miles distant under Spion
Kop, stopped there in camp on the 3rd, when parties
of men went off to view the Boer positions on Spion
Kop and Vaal-Krantz, and returned to Arcadia on the
4th.

Innumerable presents were continually arriving from
England for the battalion, and the thanks of all are
due especially to Mr. Young of Torquay for the indefatigable
manner in which he worked, and for the numerous bundles
and boxes of presents which he was instrumental in
collecting and dispatching both at this time and also
afterwards. All these presents were highly appreciated.